Best Surround-Sound Speaker System

If I was looking for an affordable, high-performance 5.1-channel home theater speaker system, I would opt for the ~$1,500 Aperion Audio’s Intimus 5B Harmony SD system. I came to this conclusion after nearly 20 hours of research and nearly 50 hours of calibration, testing, and facilitating listening panels that pitted 10 complete surround sound systems against one another, two at a time, in a partial-blind single-elimination tournament.

Last Updated: January 20, 2015

Several hours after we first published our pick, some of the Aperion speakers had already sold out. The company tells us that they'll be back in stock on Feb. 6. If you'd rather not wait, our runner-up (and former main pick) NHT Absolute 5.1T is also a great choice.

January 20, 2015:
We spent nearly 70 hours on research, calibration, and testing (including a listening panel with 10 surround systems) to find the best surround-sound speaker system for most people. The $1,500 Aperion Audio’s Intimus 5B Harmony SD trounced the competition as it emits clear, intelligible dialogue at any volume. With other systems, we found ourselves struggling to discern dialogue in noisier scenes. It gives the best results for music and movies alike.

August 15, 2014:
This is set to wait status while we work on bringing this guide up to date.

The Intimus 5B Harmony SD system was ultimately chosen for its big, bold, beautiful audio performance and its ability to deliver consistently wonderful sound to pretty much any seat in the room. Most importantly, it simply trounced the competition in terms of crisp, clear, intelligible delivery of dialogue at pretty much any listening level. With other speaker systems, we found ourselves leaning forward to make out the dialogue in noisy scenes. With the Aperion system, it wasn’t a struggle at all, which had the side effect of making the movie more comfortable to listen to at any volume. Overall, it boasts the best mix of balanced bass performance and impact with music and movies alike.

Our unanimous top pick, the Aperion Audio Intimus 5B Harmony SD, topped 9 worthy competitors in head-to-head testing thanks to its superior delivery of voices and dialogue, its beautifully blended bass, and its excellent performance with music and movies alike.

The performance differences between it and our previous top pick (and current runner-up), the NHT Absolute 5.1T, are subtle (to say the least), but the Intimus 5B sounds ever-so-slightly more robust than the NHT. With a recently reduced price of $1,470 for the complete package, it also sells for a good $800 less than the NHT system most days, and its subwoofer and main speakers work together more seamlessly—blending in such a way that deep bass seems to come from the main speakers themselves as opposed to a separate box tucked away in the corner of the room.

This set has deeper bass that brings out the best in action movies, but doesn’t sound as good as the Aperion system when listening to music. It also has floorstanding front speakers that don’t need stands.

But if the Aperions aren’t available, or if you don’t have a credenza or AV cabinet to hold bookshelf speakers (and don’t want speaker stands), the excellent $2,300 NHT Absolute 5.1T system features two floor-standing tower speakers up front and a subwoofer that delivers deeper bass than the Aperions. It may be a better choice if you’re more concerned with action-movie performance and less concerned with how the system sounds with music. But that isn’t to say that the Absolute 5.1T performs poorly with music. It’s simply that we preferred the Aperion system when listening to a variety of tunes, and much of that has to do with the differences between the NHT and Aperion subwoofers.

Perhaps counterintuitively, the NHT system may also be a better choice if you’re limited in terms of space. Its speakers actually have a smaller footprint than those of the Aperion system, despite the latter’s more compact bookshelf design.

These are compare favorably (sonically) to our top picks in many respects for ⅓ the price, but the speakers can’t compare in build quality. That extra bit of oomph is still worth paying for if you’re serious about great sound.

If you’re looking for a full-sized surround sound speaker system with the highest performance-to-price ratio, Pioneer’s $550 SP-PK52FS 5.1 Channel Speaker Package is a no-brainer as our budget pick. Like the Absolute 5.1T, the Pioneer SP-PK52FS package consists of two tower speakers up front, a pretty sizeable center channel, and bookshelf speakers for surrounds—along with a subwoofer—and like both of our other top picks, it’s more than capable of cranking out more than its fair share of immersive, room-filling sound.

It doesn’t deliver quite as much low-frequency oomph as our top pick or runner-up, and its subwoofer doesn’t blend with the main speakers as well as the Aperion’s does. But with midrange frequencies—guitars, vocals, violins and the like—we found the rest of the speakers to be more neutral and natural sounding than either the Aperion or NHT packages, and the system delivers much of the sonic impact of its competitors for less than a third of the price. The only significant caveats are its design and build quality; it may not sound like a $549 speaker system, but it does look and feel like one.

This smaller set is good for smaller spaces. It’s not as good as our picks for full-sized sets, but it punches above its weight class.

If, on the other hand, you want a complete home theater system but need something a lot smaller, Paradigm’s $1,000 Cinema 100 CT 5.1 Home Theater System was our overall favorite compact system in terms of performance. It may not pack quite as much punch as the larger systems (none of the compact speaker systems we auditioned could), but it’s still a delightfully dynamic system with great dialogue clarity and a much bigger sound that you’d expect from such small speakers.

Why should you trust me?

I’ve had the fortune of reviewing high-end audio gear as well as affordable consumer-level speakers, receivers, and other home theater components for more than a decade now. I served as East Coast Contributing Editor for Home Entertainment magazine, editor in chief of HomeTechTell, and in the past I’ve contributed to Electronic House, Big Picture Big Sound, Digital TV & Sound, and Home Theater magazine. I currently write for Home Theater Review, Residential Systems, and HDLiving.com.

Who is this guide for?

At some point, every TV watcher and movie lover realizes television speakers are terrible. They’re almost always tiny, and oftentimes they don’t even aim their tinny sound out into the room (instead, they face down or backwards into the wall).

So what to do? There are a number of options, actually. Even the most affordable soundbar offers a substantial audio upgrade, improving dialogue clarity and giving more weight to music and sound effects. The best soundbars deliver a level of performance approaching that of dedicated home theater systems.

Notice, though, that I said “approaching.” If you really want to recreate the true cinema experience at home, and you have the space for it, your best option is a 5.1 surround sound speaker system paired with a good AV receiver. This includes separate speakers for onscreen action, music and sound effects to the left and right of the screen, dedicated speakers at the rear of the room for surround sound effects, and a subwoofer to deliver deep bass. You could opt for a so-called home theater in a box, which includes the AV receiver and speakers all in one package, but you probably shouldn’t.

For this guide, we decided to limit ourselves to 5.1 systems that ranged in price from $500 up to roughly $2,000, which seems to cover the gamut that most people are looking to spend for a really good surround sound speaker system. You could spend less, but less-expensive systems are, almost without exception, comprised of much smaller speakers, which makes it more difficult to achieve a satisfying blend between the main speakers (responsible for delivery most of the midrange and high-frequency sounds) and the subwoofer (which generates deep bass). With but a few exceptions, most budget speaker systems also struggle to fill anything larger than a small room with sound, and their build quality is often lacking.

My years of reviewing speakers have taught me that going above this price quickly gets you to a point of diminishing returns, where spending twice as much doesn’t result in twice the performance capabilities.

At the other end of the spectrum, $2,000 may seem an arbitrary cap, since it’s easy to spend much more on a full-sized speaker package. But my years of reviewing speakers have taught me that going above this price quickly gets you to a point of diminishing returns, where spending twice as much doesn’t result in twice the performance capabilities.

So the goal was to find the speaker package within that price range that would work best for just about everyone. Which isn’t to say that you’re wrong if you prefer a different system. If you already have a favorite set of speakers at this budget that weren’t covered, I assure you it isn’t a personal slight. The goal here is to reach shoppers who don’t already have a personal favorite, since there are so many wonderful speaker systems to select from in this budget range.

The decision to limit ourselves to 5.1 systems may seem strange. After all, the surround sound home theater market is currently going through an awkward growth spurt thanks to the arrival of Dolby Atmos in the home, which adds overhead speakers to the traditional surround sound speaker layout of three in the front and two in the back (or on the sides). This creates a truly three-dimensional element to the home movie-watching experience. That said, it remains to be seen just how much (or how quickly) most people will embrace Dolby Atmos, as we’re just starting to see the technology in receivers. So for now, we’re sticking with traditional 5.1, since you can add height speakers to a system down the road if you decide to upgrade to an Atmos-capable AV receiver.

What do we mean by 5.1? The “5” stands for two main speakers positioned to the left and right of the TV, a center speaker between then, and two speakers in the rear of the room for surround sound effects. The “.1” is the subwoofer, which creates all the low frequency bass sounds.

It’s becoming increasingly common these days for home theater enthusiasts to add a second (or even third or fourth) subwoofer to their surround sound setups. There are many reasons why this is a good idea, but since most of the systems we tested come as complete packages, we kept the playing field even with a single sub. Check out the Step Up section for more on why you’d want more subs and some potential options.

How we picked

In updating our original article, I essentially started from scratch, compiling a spreadsheet of every 5.1 speaker system I could find in our target price range (and a few just a bit of above). Then I scoured the web for professional reviews to see what experts like Steve Guttenberg of CNET, Gene DellaSala of Audioholics, Mark Fleischmann of Sound & Vision, and our own Brent Butterworth had to say. I also factored in personal reviews from retail sites like Amazon and spent more hours than I care to count digging through forum posts at Audioholics and AVSForum to get a feel for what enthusiasts liked and didn’t like.

All of the center channels in our roundup.

After weighing the pros and cons of more than 50 complete speaker packages, I whittled the list down to those systems that had the best mix of positive professional reviews and user reviews, eliminating any that stood a high chance of being controversial. By that, I mean that some types of speakers are beloved by some and disliked by others. A number of enthusiasts, for example, love the increased efficiency and dynamic sound of speakers with horn-loaded tweeters. Others, myself included, feel that most horn-loaded speakers in this price range sound a bit weird and can be overly fussy in terms of placement.

Since the goal was to find the speaker system(s) that would appeal to the widest possible audience, such love-it-or-hate-it packages were taken out of the mix. Using these methods I narrowed the list down to the ten best-reviewed and/or most-discussed systems. Since no reviewer (or perhaps anyone) had heard all of these systems back-to-back, I got them in for direct testing and comparison.

The rest of the systems in our roundup consist of smaller satellite speakers and subwoofers, a category most often referred to as “compact home theater.” GoldenEar Technology’s SuperCinema 3 System was my first pick here, not only due to extremly positive professional reviews but also due to the fact that it serves as the reference speaker system for my own bedroom home theater. Cambridge Audio’s Minx S325 v2 was added to the mix because Mark Fleishman of Sound & Vision proclaimed it “one of the best I’ve heard. Let me be more specific: As far as the Min 21 satellite is concerned, I’ve never heard a better one.”

Bowers & Wilkins’s MT-50 Mini-Theatre was also a must-listen due to high praise from Brent Butterworth for the system’s satellite speakers (he reviewed a slightly different package with a more powerful subwoofer). RBH’s CTx Series 5.1 System is still relatively new, and as far as I know the only professional review thus far was written by yours truly, but they were added to the roundup based on my initial listening impressions and the popularity of previous speakers in the series. Paradigm’s Cinema 100 CT system was selected for its five-star Amazon rating, excellent professional reviews, and popularity on enthusiast forums. And finally, KEF’s E305 system was brought in because, quite frankly, as I scoured the web researching compact home theater systems, I stumbled along an inordinate number of shoppers asking the same question: “Should I buy ______ or the KEF E305 system?”

How we tested

For setup, calibration, and testing, I relied on Anthem’s MRX 710 AV receiver. Why that receiver in particular? Two reasons, actually. Firstly, its Anthem Room Correction software allowed me to store the distance, level, bass management, and room correction information for each system in a file on my hard drive. This meant I could quickly upload those parameters during our blind listening panels, reducing the downtime between faceoffs.

Secondly, the Anthem Room Correction software gives me a more control over how I set up and EQ the speakers. For example, it enables very fine control over the crossover between the subwoofer and main speakers, which allowed every speaker system in our roundup to perform at its best.

Using EQ in speaker reviews is a somewhat controversial topic. If you’d like to dig deeper into why, you can read my article “Automated Room Correction Explained” on Home Theater Review’s website. In a nutshell: pretty much any room is going to negatively impact the performance of your subwoofer and the low frequencies coming from your main speakers. The right amount of equalization can help ameliorate that. Applying EQ to the midrange and treble frequencies can drastically change the sound of a speaker, though, which would defeat the point of this guide. So I only applied equalization to bass frequencies below 300 Hz in an attempt to minimize any booming or unevenness in the bass caused by my room, but in a way that wouldn’t change the distinctive voice of each speaker system.

After all of the speakers were measured and calibrated, I borrowed a second Anthem MRX 710, placed the receivers side-by-side, and connected the HDMI outputs from my OPPO BDP-93 Blu-ray player to both. I wired the speakers with Wirecutter’s top pick for the best speaker cable, Monoprice’s 2747 12 gauge wire, then invited my lifelong friend Dave Calhoun over for a blind listening panel. Dave is a guitarist with more than twenty years of recording experience, and he was instrumental in sparking my interest in high-end audio back in the 1990s. He and I also tend to have quite different tastes in speakers, which I thought might lead to some very welcomed arguments and discussions. The goal, after all, wasn’t to find the speaker system that I liked best, but the one that would work best for the widest possible audience.

My wife kindly volunteered to operate the two receivers, switching between them at regular intervals so that neither Dave nor I knew which of two speaker systems we were listening to at any given time. Two speaker systems were selected at random, their configuration files uploaded to the MRX 710s, their levels checked and matched with my handheld sound meter, and the winner of each round went on to face another competitor. We also swapped the positions of speakers during testing to make sure that placement wasn’t giving one system an unfair advantage over the other.

For listening material, we relied primarily on four clips from the 2014 DTS Demo Disc Blu-ray. For movies, we focused on a clip from Oblivion, because its mix is so dense that dialogue tends to be muddy through anything less than an impeccably designed speaker system; and a clip from Pacific Rim, because Dave and I are little boys. (Also because the clip features some ferociously deep and hard-hitting bass, which makes it an excellent test for subwoofers that tend to be one of the weak spots in surround sound systems in this price range.)

For music, we mostly listened to the surround mixes for Silversun Pickups’ “Dots and Dashes (Enough Already)” due to its strong emphasis on guitars, vocals, and other midrange frequencies, as well as Dave Stewart’s “Every Single Night,” which boasts tons of bass, plenty of high-end sparkle, and a very busy sound mix that has a habit of getting particularly crowded when played through lesser speaker systems.

During the course of our testing, Dave and I noticed three common trends. The first is that larger speaker systems almost always won over compact speaker systems, even with their volumes matched. They were, with only a few exceptions, always more dynamic (meaning that they could play more quietly without sounding dull and lifeless and more loudly without sounding strained and distorted). And in most cases the larger systems sounded more cohesive, with less of an audible disconnect between the subwoofer and the main speakers.

The second thing we discovered (or perhaps I should say confirmed) is that, even though we weren’t aware of which system we picked as our winner until after each faceoff (at which point I traced the speaker wires), our favorites always ended up the systems with the better center channel speakers and better subwoofers. It’s a common trope that the center speaker is responsible for delivering more than 60 to 80% of a film’s soundtrack. I can’t pretend to have measured the sound output of each speaker individually to confirm that, but I can tell you that several otherwise fine systems got knocked out of the competition purely due to poor center channel design. Axiom’s Epic Midi – 125 Home Theater system, for example, dropped out of the competition fairly early due to the thin sound and uneven performance of its VP100 v4 Center Channel Speaker when compared to other systems in our roundup.

Our pick

Our unanimous top pick, the Aperion Audio Intimus 5B Harmony SD, topped 9 worthy competitors in head-to-head testing thanks to its superior delivery of voices and dialogue, its beautifully blended bass, and its excellent performance with music and movies alike.

The Aperion Audio Intimus 5B Harmony SD system came out as our top pick because out of all the speaker systems we tested, it delivers the best mix of the sonic characteristics that matter most in a home theater system. They’re well-balanced without any egregious dips or boosts in the bass, midrange, or treble frequencies; they have a quality of sound that doesn’t change drastically as you move from seat to seat in the room; they possess the ability to play both softly and loudly without sounding under- or overwhelming; and most importantly, they wield superior clarity of dialogue and vocals.

The system is comprised of four Intimus 5B Bookshelf Speakers, a similarly-sized Intimus 5C Center Channel Speaker, and the powerful but reasonably compact Bravus II 8D Powered Subwoofer. The speakers are small enough they won’t overwhelm modestly-sized rooms but large and capable enough that they won’t be swallowed by larger listening spaces. Additionally, they are beautifully designed, exceptionally well-built, and super easy to hook up.

In the end, though, it was a pretty tight race between the Aperion system, NHT’s Absolute 5.1T, and Pioneer’s SP-PK52FS 5.1 Channel Speaker Package. There were elements of each system’s performance that we liked better than the other two, but the Aperion was our top choice for overall sound quality and smart speaker design.

What made it better than the rest? Again, its superior performance with dialogue and the way its subwoofer seamlessly blends with the rest of the speakers in the system.

Voices from the 5C center have a wonderful way of cutting through even the densest sound mixes with a lot going on simultaneously.

The excellent dialogue clarity of the Aperion system will be especially appreciated by listeners who find themselves constantly fiddling with the volume controls trying to understand what’s being said onscreen. Voices from the 5C center have a wonderful way of cutting through even the densest sound mixes with a lot going on simultaneously.

We especially noticed this when listening to the clip from Oblivion. The actors, in one scene, are forced to compete with a lighting storm and the roar of spaceship engines. With other speaker systems we found ourselves leaning forward to make out the dialogue, simple as it is. With the Aperion system it wasn’t a struggle at all, which had the interesting side effect of making the movie more comfortable to listen to at any volume.

The same holds true of one of my favorite dialogue-clarity torture tests: the Mines of Moria sequences from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The problem with these scenes isn’t so much that the voices get drowned out by louder sound effects, but that they tend to get obscured by the ambient echoes and reverberations of the onscreen environments, as well as the fact that the characters tend to whisper. Even the most hushed utterings came through the 5C with wonderful clarity, though, and again we never once felt the urge to reach for the volume button on the remote control.

Aperion Audio Intimus 5C Center Channel Speaker

That, combined with the performance of the Intimus’s subwoofer, gave the system the edge over its excellent competition.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say we were won over by how the Bravus II 8D worked with the other speakers in the system. With movies and music alike, the subwoofer adds weight to the rest of the speakers without drawing attention to itself as a separate box. The crossover between subwoofer and main speakers is practically flawless. The upper end of the subwoofer’s range sounds incredibly similar to the lower range of the bookshelf speakers and center channel.

During our last round of testing Dave noted, “I’m less aware of the fact that there’s a subwoofer with System B [the Aperions]. It sounds like I’m listening to a really robust set of full-range speakers.” I agreed. (Check out the Design section below for more about crossovers and why they’re important.)

The Aperion system also delivers a deft mix of musicality and muscularity, and is one of only a handful of systems in our roundup that sounds as good in 2.1 channel mode (front left and right speakers plus the subwoofer) as it does with all channels engaged. This is a major plus if you prefer to listen to your CDs, MP3s, and vinyl records without the use of Dolby Pro Logic II, DTS Neo:6, or settings such as “Jazz Club” and “Concert Hall” that are built into most receivers.

It’s also worth nothing that all Aperion speaker systems, including the Intimus 5B Harmony SD, are sold direct to consumers, with a 30-day free trial and free shipping both ways, which makes testing the speakers out in your own home, with your own electronics, pretty much a risk-free proposition.

Who else likes it?

There don’t seem to be many professional reviews of the Intimus 5B Harmony SD system as a whole, but Steve Guttenberg of CNET reviewed an earlier version of the system with a different subwoofer and concluded that “Aperion’s awesome 5.1 speaker system is pricey, but the Intimus 5B Harmony SD’s great sound and superb build quality are definitely worth it.” He also liked the system’s excellent performance with music and movies alike, and noted that when watching the sci-fi movie Sunshine, “[t]he Bravus 8D sub was in the front right corner of the room, but the low throb of the ship’s engines in the back of the home theater gave the impression the small rear Intimus 5B surround speakers were large floor-standing models,” which is perfectly in line with our observations.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Really, the only negative comments that either Dave or I had about the Aperion Audio Intimus 5B Harmony SD system as a whole is that its subwoofer doesn’t play quite as deeply as our previous top pick and current runner-up, the NHT Absolute 5.1T. They’re equally powerful, but the NHT B-10d sub proved capable of cranking out low frequency sounds down to nearly the lower limits of human hearing (~20 Hz), whereas the Aperion Bravus II 8D ran out of steam pretty quickly below 30 Hz.

That’s still pretty fantastic for a subwoofer of this size and price, but it means that, for example, in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, after the title character loses his epic bass guitar battle with Todd Ingram (played by Brandon Routh), you don’t hear the ominous, ultra-low rumble that permeates the scene. You still hear every thumping bass guitar note, though, and every single one of the movie’s ridiculously hard-hitting action sound effects.

It’s worth emphasizing that the Bravus II 8D’s lack of ultra-deep bass, as compared with the NHT B-10d, was only something we noticed when listening to movie clips. None of the musical selections on the DTS demo disc, nor any of the CDs and MP3s we auditioned in followup listening sessions, spotlighted the Aperion sub’s inability to reach quite as low as the NHT’s.

The Aperion system may not benefit from a lot of the flashy language and esoteric speaker technology of some of its competition, but its speakers are put together exceedingly well and rely on components that have stood the test of time. The Intimus 5B Bookshelf Speakers each feature a one-inch silk-dome tweeter and 5.25-inch woven-fiberglass mid-woofer. The Bravus II 8D Powered Subwoofer boasts three eight-inch aluminum woofers: one is driven by a 300-watt digital amplifier, and the other two are driven by the internal air pressure of the cabinet.

Perhaps most importantly, the Intimus 5C Center Channel Speaker features the same one-inch tweeter as the 5B, two of the same 5.25-inch woven-fiberglass mid-woofers (one driven by your receiver or amplifier, the other driven by internal air pressure), and a four-inch woven-fiberglass mid-woofer positioned directly under the tweeter.

This isn’t the most common design for a full-sized center speaker, most of which feature the tweeter (the small driver responsible for high-frequency sounds) positioned directly between two mid-woofers (the larger cones that generate lower- and mid-frequency sounds). But ultimately, I believe it’s at least half the reason why Dave and I both preferred the Aperion system over all its competitors.

What are the advantages of this design? For one thing, it causes the center speaker to behave more like a traditional speaker. When you think “speaker,” you probably picture a series of cones stacked vertically, right? When you arrange the drivers above each other like this, the beam of sound projected into the room (its dispersion, in technical terms) is wide, but not very tall. This is ideal for speakers in a room.

Take that same speaker design and lay it on its side (i.e. most center channel speakers), and the beam of sound tends to be tall, but not very wide. This isn’t ideal for more than one listener, spread out horizontally, say, on a couch.

Owing to the design of the Intimus 5C Center Channel Speaker, it doesn’t suffer from that tall-but-skinny dispersion pattern. It sounds pretty fantastic from nearly any seat in the room.

What we discovered during our testing, though, is that most of the highly-regarded speaker systems in our target price range (between roughly $500 and $2,000) sound remarkably similar in many respects. And there’s a very good reason for that. Research performed in the late 1970s and 1980s at Canada’s National Research Council found that several key and measurable factors determine whether or not a speaker sounds good to most listeners. One of these is relatively flat frequency response, which means that low-frequency sounds, mid-frequency sounds, and high-frequency sounds are delivered with pretty much equal loudness, as are all of the tones in between.

Another important factor is reasonably wide, even dispersion, which means that the quality of sound should be similar whether you’re sitting directly in front of a speaker (on-axis) or off to the left or right (off-axis) and that the transition between on-axis and off-axis performance should be smooth. Most center speakers in particular struggle with this, which is one of the reasons why we loved the Aperion Intimus 5C so much.

The research also demonstrated that speakers with lower levels of distortion consistently ranked better than speakers with higher levels of distortion in blind listening tests, which speaks for itself. Of course, designing a good speaker involves a lot more than these considerations, but it’s a safe bet that most speaker manufacturers aiming to appeal to the broadest audience are going to aim for these three targets.

Another important aspect affecting overall system performance is the crossover between the subwoofer and main speakers. In your typical surround sound system, the subwoofer is responsible for delivering deep bass frequencies (kettle drums, bass guitars, the engine rumble of J-type 327 Nubian royal starships, etc.), whereas the main speakers deliver the midrange sounds (human voices, guitars, horns, and so forth) and high-frequency sounds (glass shattering, steam escaping from a teakettle).

But there isn’t simply one frequency at which the subwoofer drops out and the main speakers drop in. The subwoofer gradually drops off in volume at higher frequencies, while the main speakers gradually increase their volume to compensate.

So, in any system that includes a subwoofer, there is a small range of sounds generated both by the sub and the main speakers. Simply put, the frequency at which both sub and main speakers generate the same amount of sound is the crossover frequency, which can be higher or lower depending on how much bass the main speakers are capable of generating. Ideally, this point shouldn’t make itself known. The speakers and sub should work seamlessly together, as they do in the Aperion.

All three of our top picks were capable of handling a crossover point of 80 Hz, which is roughly the same tone generated by the fattest string (the low E) on a six-string guitar, and THX’s recommended crossover frequency. The Pioneer SP-PK52FS system did sound better with a slightly higher crossover point of 100 Hz, though, which is a little lower than the lowest note a French horn can play.

A close runner-up/tower speaker pick

This set has deeper bass that brings out the best in action movies, but doesn’t sound as good as the Aperion system when listening to music. It also has floorstanding front speakers that don’t need stands.

Though the Aperion ended up as our top pick this time around, our previous pick, the NHT Absolute 5.1T system, sounds remarkably similar in many respects. So much so that if you auditioned the two systems a few days, hours, or perhaps even minutes apart, you might not notice the differences that ultimately made us like the Aperion system a little more. In fact, for listeners who value deep bass performance above all else, the NHT package may be the better choice.

Whereas the Aperion Bravus II 8D subwoofer won us over with its impactful mid-bass frequencies, as well as the upper bass—where sounds from the sub are handed off to the main speakers (and vice versa)—the NHT B-10d impressed us with its ability to dig deeper: to deliver ultra-low bass sounds that are felt more than heard.

In addition to cranking out deeper bass, the system also has a bit more emphasis on the high frequencies. In my notes, I said that the NHT system “has more sparkle, more detail, and it seems a little more spacious.” Dave agreed, but commented that, “when you switch back and forth between the two, System A [the NHT package] has a bit of edginess that isn’t there in System B [the Aperions].” Ultimately, we both agreed that the edginess was more of an issue with music than with movies.

Despite the added height of the NHT’s towers, all of the main speakers in the Absolute 5.1T package have smaller footprints than those in the Aperion Intimus system. So the bookshelf surround speakers, the center speaker, and even the main towers occupy a smaller area of the room, while still delivering pretty much the same level of overall sound output as the Aperions.

So, again, if you only ever plan to use your home cinema for cinematic purposes, the NHT Absolute 5.1T system might be a potentially better pick in some respects. For most people, though, the Aperions sound a bit better overall and are a lot cheaper.

A great low-priced option

These are compare favorably (sonically) to our top picks in many respects for ⅓ the price, but the speakers can’t compare in build quality. That extra bit of oomph is still worth paying for if you’re serious about great sound.

It says a lot about Pioneer’s $550 SP-PK52FS 5.1 Channel Speaker Package that it ended up in a tight three-way race with two other systems that cost roughly three times as much (or more).

The SP-PK52FS boasts strikingly realistic midrange performance and a powerful-sounding (if not exactly deep-reaching) subwoofer. Thanks to its stunning high-frequency performance, it’s also a little more detailed and slightly more spacious sounding than the Aperion system, but without as much edginess as we heard in the NHT system.

Ultimately, sonically speaking, the things that kept the SP-PK52FS out of the running as our top pick were that its center speaker didn’t sound equally fantastic from every seating position (which the Aperion 5C did), its subwoofer didn’t blend quite as seamlessly with the main speakers (regardless of crossover setting), and its bass wasn’t nearly as deep as either of our top picks.

A bigger concern to us, though, were the SP-PK52FS’s build quality and overall design. There’s no denying that Pioneer managed to deliver such a stunning sounding system for such a low price by cutting corners in the materials department. One of the SP-FS52 floor-standing tower speakers, for example, came out of the box with a significantly dented corner. It wasn’t chipped or scuffed or notched; it was dented and crumpled, like the corner of a mishandled cardboard box. Likewise, a pretty sizeable internal component of the system’s SW-8MK2 subwoofer came loose as I was rearranging the speakers during testing. Whatever it was remained electrically connected, because the sub still works. But given that there’s a loud thumping knock every time I move the sub now, I suspect that it will become completely dislodged soon enough.

Even taking those quality control concerns into consideration, the Pioneers are still a great bargain due to their excellent performance (and not just in a “for the price” sort of way). But even ignoring the physical flaws, we still prefered the sound quality of the Aperion system overall.

What if you want to step it up?

Our main pick should be the best fit for most people’s listening preferences, but if you have a bit of wiggle room in your budget and want to spend more, you actually have quite a few options. The sky’s the limit, actually. Many shoppers may look at Aperion’s own lineup and zero in on the company’s Intimus 5T Harmony HD system as the most obvious upgrade, since it replaces two of the 5B bookshelves with a pair of the company’s 5T Tower Speakers at the front of the room. Since we liked the 5Bs a lot, never finding them “small” sounding, we think a smarter upgrade would be to add more (or bigger) subwoofers.

Compact alternatives

This smaller set is good for smaller spaces. It’s not as good as our picks for full-sized sets, but it punches above its weight class.

As I said above, in our testing it quickly became apparent that larger speakers (bookshelves, floor-standing towers) almost always trumped smaller speakers in terms of overall performance, even with their volumes matched. But the bulk of the systems we brought in for evaluation, and indeed the majority of popular speaker packages in the $500 to $2,000 range overall, fall into the category of “compact” home theater systems. So if you can’t or don’t want to live with larger speakers, for reasons of space or aesthetic taste, there are a few compact systems that stand out.

In terms of overall sound quality, our favorite compact theater package was Paradigm’s $999 Cinema 100 CT 5.1 Home Theater System. It boasts wonderfully neutral frequency response, with equal emphasis on lows, mids, and high-frequency sounds; it’s wonderfully dynamic for such a small speaker system; and although the crossover point between the subwoofer and satellite speakers is pretty high (120 Hz), the transition between them is still quite smooth, though not as smooth as with the Aperion system. And the subwoofer itself packs quite a punch, despite the fact it doesn’t play as deeply as some others. The only low points for me were that the speaker cables have to be threaded through a hole in the speaker stands before the stands are connected, which can make setup quite cumbersome.

The best overall balance between attractive design and performance came from Bowers & Wilkins’ $1,750 MT-50 Mini-Theatre, which may make it a good step-up pick if aesthetics are a factor in your speaker-buying decision. It isn’t quite as neutral sounding as KEF’s E305 (discussed below in the competition section) or the Paradigm Cinema 100 CT, but its subwoofer delivers deeper bass than any other subwoofer in our roundup (even the NHT system). The flipside to that is that the sub can’t play very loudly, which makes it less than ideal for mid-sized and larger rooms. And even in my relatively small bedroom, it wasn’t nearly as forceful as the Aperion’s subwoofer.

What makes the MT-50 system extra special, though, is the design of its M-1 satellite speakers. They feature beautiful integrated tabletop stands, which can be aimed with a high degree of precision using the built-in tools hidden in the base of the speaker. The bottom of the stands can also be removed for wall-mounting (using included brackets) or to attach the speakers to beautiful (and optional) floor stands. Either way, speaker-wire connections proved to be simple and tidy. In fact, it was one of the few compact home theater systems that accepted our relatively thick speaker cables without issue. Aside from the Aperion and KEF systems, it’s also the only package we auditioned that looks and feels to be worth way more than its price tag would suggest.

What else did we test?

If there were a category for “biggest sound in the tiniest package,” Cambridge Audio’s $1,449 Minx S325 v2 system would be the clear winner. Its little Minx Min 21 satellite speakers measure just six inches tall, 3.1 inches wide, and 3.3 inches deep, but deliver a staggeringly huge ocean of sound that’s downright holographic in many respects. I will say that the Minx S325 v2 system is the only package in our roundup whose sound changed measurably after a few hours of breaking in, which is probably a result of its unusual drivers. But once the drivers settled in, they were simply everything you could ask for in a speaker: dynamic, impactful, and neutral, with stunning dialogue clarity. The only thing that held the Minx S325 v2 package back as a whole was its subwoofer, which struggled a little at the upper end of its performance range and didn’t blend as well with the satellites.

GoldenEar Technology’s $1,750 SuperCinema 3 System is my own personal reference speaker system for my bedroom home theater. And once all of the other speakers have been boxed back up and returned to their manufacturers, it will once again take its place in that room. But again, the goal here wasn’t to find the right speaker system for me; it was to find the right speaker system in this budget range for most shoppers. And in head-to-head competition with our other picks, we found that the GoldenEar system didn’t boast quite as seamless a blend between subwoofer and satellites as other compact offerings, which may outweigh its other sonic benefits for some listeners.

In terms of overall aesthetic (with really nice performance to boot), we really loved KEF’s $1,200 E305 home theatre speaker system. The E305 delivers the best dialogue clarity of all the compact theater systems we tested, and its subwoofer plays a little deeper than most. What I loved most about it, though, were its built-in swiveling stands, which allow you to wall-mount the speakers easily without the need for any additional tools. Also, I appreciated the fact that the speaker connections are hidden underneath the bottom of the stands, which makes for a clean look whether you wall-mount them or set them on a flat surface. The system’s E-2 subwoofer also features a unique oblong dome-shaped design that sets it apart from the typical boxy subwoofer. In terms of performance, though, it couldn’t quite keep up with the dynamic impact and overall musicality of the Aperion system. And when compared to the other compact systems, it wasn’t quite as tonally neutral as the Paradigm system, nor did it offer as much installation flexibility as the B&W system. But if you’re looking for a beautiful compact home theater system that’s easy to install and sounds superb, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

RBH’s $1,699 CTx Series 5.1 System also boasted stunning dialogue clarity and excellent dynamics for its size; in fact, of all the compact home theater systems its dialogue clarity was second only to the KEF E305. What ultimately knocked the RBH system out of contention wasn’t sound quality, or design—rather the fact that it proved to be rough on AV receivers. My Anthem MRX 710 drove the speakers with no problems, but when I tested it with an Onkyo TX-NR636, the receiver overheated and even shut down at times when the audio from movies or music got particularly intense. I didn’t have that problem with any other speaker system in our roundup.

Axiom’s Epic Midi – 125 Home Theater system was actually the first system cut from our faceoff. It’s not a bad system at all. I can understand why Axiom has such a following, and why the system is highly regarded overall. But in direct comparison with every other system in our roundup, the Axiom subwoofer underwhelmed us and, as mentioned above, its center speaker’s performance was uneven and a little thin, despite its size.

The importance of placement

When I said above that a dedicated surround sound system is a great option if you have room for it, I didn’t just mean your room must be a certain size. After all, the speakers in our roundup range from an itty bitty six inches tall and three inches wide up to a relatively beefy 38 inches tall. In either case, the most important factor is whether or not you have the space to position these speakers for optimal surround sound performance.

If you imagine a line from your nose to the center of your display screen, the front left and right speakers need to be positioned on either side of the display, ideally between 22 and 30 degrees from the center. (Proper placement is given in degrees rather than units of distance because the distance is determined by how far you sit from your screen).

Placement of the center speaker is determined by whether your display is a television or projection screen. If it’s a TV, you’ll need to position the center speaker directly beneath it on credenza or directly above it on a stand—whichever option gets it closest to your ear height.

The rear speakers should be placed somewhere between 90 degrees from the center of the screen (directly to the left and right of your ears) and 110 degrees (to the side and slightly behind you. If you need to place them a little higher than your ears, that’s okay; just try not to place them lower than ear height.

The sub’s position in the room isn’t quite as easy to pin down as the five main speakers. The best spot for the sub in your room may be slightly to the left or right of your front main speakers, it may be the corner of the room, or it may be along a side wall. But having more flexibility in terms of where you can place the subwoofer doesn’t mean that its positioning isn’t important. Moving the sub as little as six inches can have a drastic impact on the amount and quality of bass that reaches your ears.

Wrapping it up

The fact is that almost all of the speakers we tested are great. But the bottom line is this: for most shoppers looking for a fantastic home theater speaker system, the Aperion Audio Intimus 5B Harmony SD is the package to get. It boasts the best center speaker of any system in our roundup (I’ve auditioned other center speakers costing more than the entire Aperion package that didn’t deliver dialogue as well), and its subwoofer and main speakers work so well together that the line between them is virtually seamless.

If you’d rather have large floor-standing towers at the front of the room, or if you value ultra-deep bass performance with movies over a more balanced musical sound, our previous top pick, NHT’s Absolute 5.1T system, is an excellent alternative.

If you need something smaller, for reasons of limited space of aesthetic preference, Paradigm’s Cinema 100 CT 5.1 Home Theater System boasts delightfully balanced sound and packs a big punch, whereas B&W’s pricey MT-50 Mini-Theatre strikes the best balance between form and function.

I got the Pioneer bookshelf speakers and they really have been great (they were even on sale at BB for $99). So, how does the NHT set compare to filling out the rest of my setup with a couple Pioneer floor-standing units, their center and sub?

Anonymous

Wondering this too. I’m surprised the Pioneer FS52 floorstanding speakers haven’t found a place on this site. They’re a seriously good bang for the buck.

Andy

Just bought a system from NHT- amazing service. I was going to buy this exact system, but after working with NHT and my installers, it just wasn’t the best fit for the room. I was able to get a seriously better system for just a smidge more. Really can’t speak highly enough of their customer service. I’ll post again once I get the system and have it hooked up.
Cheers!

the NHT package I mentioned below is installed and is amazing. When I outfit my bonus room I am going to buy the above package. I am really happy with the in wall speakers for surround (three) and the upgraded speakers. The center channel is amazing, subwoofer is fantastic. Buy direct from nht, they se fantastic.

Sleepingbear

I would add, that in justifying 2000 dollars on speakers, they tend to last a long time. Sure fads come and go in speakers and brands but a good quality set of speakers could last you the rest of your life and you could even pass them down to your kids (my dad did)

Horst Tebbe

I bought a pair of the first NHT towers about 18 years ago, and they still amaze people with their definition, power, and deep bass. That said, I understand that the company has changed hands several times, so this may not be relevant.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Good to know! Great feedback thanks!

mike k

Co-founder Chris Byrne still runs NHT. Not only that, but he’s often the one people will talk with about system recommendations. The other main guy there is Bob Hopkins, NHT since the mid ’90s. Ownership has changed over the years, but the people are there.

bkim

I’ve bought various NHT and NHT Pro speakers over the past 15 years or so. They’re all still going strong. I had some issues with my SA-3 subwoofer amp after several years, but overall, NHT is a great value and I would definitely buy again.

Puv

I know its really personal preference – but what is your take on using bipole/dipole speakers for the surround in a 5.1 setup, as opposed to bookshelves? I am upgrading my speakers – and have picked up a pair of Energy RC-70s for the front, an RC-LCR for the center, and am debating what to do with the rears. Either RC-10s (which are rather large, and will look out of place on the walls), or RC-R (which are hard, if not impossible to find, may have to go with Energy V-S’s) for the rear.

Thanks!

Totts

How does this compare to a Sonos 5.1 system?
Is it worth sacrificing some of the Sonos convenience for the sound quality offered by this system?

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Here’s what we had to say about the Sonos, so feel free to compare and make your choice!

What if you match the Pioneer bookshelf speakers with the 2.1 tower and sub NHT system and add the NHT center?

Ian

This analysis seems very soft compared to what I’m used to on this site. I love home audio so I was very excited to read this, but compared with your analysis of cameras or tv’s this is hardly worth putting up.
You don’t mention who the reviewer is like you usually do and clearly you did not even listen to or own this system or any other before you wrote the review. You did absolutely no analysis besides reading reviews online, which anyone could do.

You also don’t offer any step up or step down picks or picks for people who might want different aesthetics or acoustic characteristics. Home theater audio is packed with quality producers of equipment so while this is a great set, I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s the best or not offer alternatives. Step it up!

Tet Matto

I have a perfect response for you.

At the time this review was published the site was about six months old since it’s been online. The writers probably knew what they wanted to do, but some of them were transitioning from writing news, entertainment, and essay articles for Gizmodo and others. As a result, the quality you are now used to was not there. Most (to not say all) of the articles published around 2011 and 2012 were pretty thin.

However, around the end of 2012, the staff took things to a whole new level, which originates the onset of all the high quality articles you have now.

So, all they have to do now is to rewrite or update the articles.

I hope that helps.

yikape

I bought these speakers a month or so ago in fulfillment of a long-standing dream to replace the cheapo theater in a box I was using and my very aged stereo system with something that would serve both purposes. I finally set them up over the weekend and am thrilled. Let’s acknowledge that I can’t really compare the NHTs to something comparable. I had taken to listening to the home theater in a box so probably beating on tin cans with soup spoons would have been an improvement but, that said, I think the speakers are just super. At low listening levels, there’s incredible detail and the speakers practically beg to be driven to the levels of a live performance. The richness, the detail just get better as the volume goes up.

I have watched a couple of 5.1 movies (Batman Returns) and, well, “immersive” is the adjective that comes to mind. Really feel like you’re in the middle of the movie.

One other person commented on NHTs customer service. I absolutely agree. They’re pretty local for me so I drove out to pick them up thus saving on shipping but in dealing with them, they contacted me to clarify my order (I hadn’t read carefully and order the built-in speakers rather than the bookshelves and in white not black) and without my even asking, gave me a discount because they had it going on. And the guy I ended up dealing with was the owner. Talk about direct contact with the top of the organization.

The build quality of these speakers is incredible. Everything is perfect and fits together smoothly and with a craftsman-like feel. Really top notch.

Couldn’t be happier unless I could stay home all the time and listen to them.

mika

Do you have any ETA on update? Shopping season is getting closer …
Thank you.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

It’s being researched, but no ETA as of now. I’ll do my best to keep you posted (or at least give you a heads up!)

mika

Thank you!

derekf

Please hurry up. I’ve been waiting to make a decision and need to see your recommendation.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Hurrying as fast as we can without cutting corners and doing a crummy job!

Jake

I hope that the upcoming updates to this review include products from Ascend Acoustics for consideration. Ascend is a direct-sale company that manufactures their speakers in the United States, and they tend to outperform speakers that cost twice as much.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Can’t say one way or another, but if you subscribe to our newsletter you’ll know a week in advance!

mika

Do you plan to release an update before this year’s Black Friday?

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

Still no ETA. Sorry

mika

I see :(… Can you at least say if the NHT is still is a good choice or you found some issues with it?
Thank you.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

They’re good, but this is now wait statused – I’d suggest a wait!

Billy

I would strongly suggest you try out HSU research package deal surround kits. They are next level good.

mika

Seems that speakers in all Package Deals are same, and the only difference is subs. Should make it easier to test

kpedraja

Any chance this is getting updated soon? August 15th was quite a while ago…

I hope the entire NHT line is as good as the speakers reviewed here. I bought the in-wall speakers (2 front – iWR-ARC, 4 surround – AiW-ARC), a sub – B-10d, and centre channel – TwoC. I’ll update here when I get it all set up. I was also going to buy four ceiling speakers and an 11.2 ATMOS receiver but I ran out of money!

mika

I couldn’t wait either: went ahead with C3 5.1 set.

theodoredonaldkerabatsos

If anyone is put off of the NHT system due to the center speaker vs. the Aperion (which I have not heard), the Absolute Center apparently used in this review was out of stock when I purchased my NHT front stage in November, so I upgraded to the TwoC (same sized woofer and tweeter as the Absolute Towers and purportedly voiced the same, though there are differences in materials used, but I haven’t detected timbre mismatch, and certainly none that detracts from my enjoyment of the system). It features the same design described for Aperion’s center, with the mid range placed directly below the tweeter, and a larger cabinet than the Absolute Center. While I can’t pretend to know without listening to the Apron system, I would wager that this would make up some ground between the two systems in the area where the NHT system is said to not stack up as well against the Aperion. Finally, as I said below (as DonnyKerabatsos), NHT goes on sale with reasonable frequency, and if you contact an authorized dealer (as I did) and are willing to forego the in-home trial (return only with defect), you can get discounts well below even the sale prices on NHT’s website. Consumers are fortunate to have as many good choices that are affordable to a great many of us.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

@theodoredonaldkerabatsos, your last sentence in particular is absolutely spot on: “Consumers are fortunate to have as many good choices that are affordable to a great many of us.”

That’s one of the things that made this roundup so challenging, but it’s also the thing that made it so interesting for me. Of all the systems that we brought in for evaluation, only one sounded a bit lacking during my initial setup and break-in period. With everything else, heard in isolation, I found myself thinking, “Oooh, this one’s going to win.” It wasn’t until we got into the blind listening panels, in which two systems went head-to-head within a second or so of one another, that the often subtle relative strengths and weaknesses of each speaker system really started to reveal themselves.

theodoredonaldkerabatsos

Thanks for the reply. I realize this suggestion would potentially complicate the review process and muddy your recommendation somewhat, but it may be worth mentioning that, rather than going with the subwoofers offered by the various manufacturers in their 5.1 packages, a better quality subwoofer can often be had at around the same price point from the likes of Hsu, SVS, and Rhythmik. I still have a Definitive Technology ProSub 1000 from my Procinema system, but an upgrade to a Rhythmic LV12R or SVS SB2000 is in my future.

Also, they are a new product, but SVS’s Prime series speakers seem to be getting good reviews and a pair of their bookshelf speakers, a center, 2 satellites and a SB1000 sub can be had for $1550. You could upgrade that to a 2000 series sub and stick under the $2k budget, or swap the front book shelf speakers for the Prime towers and still only come in at $2050. Could be worth looking into if you are able to do any updates without replicating the blind testing.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Well, going forward all updates to this article will include the blind testing process. Given how good many of the speakers in this budget range are, it’s simply too difficult to make a direct comparison between systems otherwise.

You mention that adding third-party subwoofer recommendations may “complicate the review process and muddy your recommendation.” That’s true, but the main reason we limited ourselves to complete systems here is to avoid confusing or overwhelming the reader who already finds this stuff overly complicated. This guide was primarily written for shoppers like the one I ran across on Facebook not long ago who want good sound, but really don’t even know where rear channel speakers are supposed to go. (Honestly, the picture he posted showed the surround speakers positioned on his credenza between the center speaker and the front mains.)

For that shopper, if I were to dig into the issue of adding a third-party subwoofer to a system like the Aperion, the question then becomes, “Okay, which one should I buy?” Like you, I adore SVS subs to itty bitty pieces, but the nature of the Wirecutter process is to remove such biases, to put hands on all the worthy competitors, test the living heck out of them, and explain the process of determining which one you should buy. So that’s really a separate guide in and of itself.

Trust me, though: the minute such a guide shows up on the site, I’ll be revising the “Step up” section of this guide with a link to it.

Also, I’m glad you mentioned the SVS Prime series! Those speakers were released after I had done all of my testing for this guide, but they will be amongst the first speakers I bring in for testing in the next update (along with PSB’s Imagine X series).

theodoredonaldkerabatsos

Awesome, to all of that. I’m still loving my pair of PSB Century 300i that I’ve had for 15 plus years (I occasionally get the upgrade bug when I read a glowing review, but then I just listen to them and the money stays in my pocket), but haven’t had a chance to hear the Imagine X line yet.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Me either, but I’m very excited about them. Steve Guttenberg says nice words about them, and although he and I don’t always agree about all things audio-related, when he likes a speaker a lot I always find it worth some serious attention.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

PS: You have no idea how difficult it was to resist the temptation to say, “Donny, you’re out of your element!”

Cee

Chris at NHT helped me modify the Absolute Tower system for an urban environment by upgrading the center to the larger TwoC and swapping out the subwoofer for the slightly smaller Super 8 powered sub. All of their speakers are designed to be timbre matched so you can design the system to suit your tastes. The TwoC center channel adds some extra oomph to dialogue and fullness to music as well. The Super 8 Powered sub is more neighbor-friendly for apartment living but still provides ample bass to round out the sound profile.

What other speaker company can you call up and have a conversation directly with the owner to tailor the system to your room specs? Absolutely amazing service for an absolutely amazing speaker system.

Guesty McGuesterson

I didn’t see any mention of Sonos here. Given that they’re your pick for best whole-home audio system, and that they sell a soundbar, subwoofer, and speakers that can be set up as a surround system and easily connected to an optical audio output, and add up to a similar price to the ones you’re testing here, it would be interesting to see where it lands in this comparison.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it sacrificed some quality, but the other advantages (no wires, also networks to the rest of the house, plays streaming music) would still make it very much worth considering for most people, I suspect.

darwin

Sounders are terrible including the Sonos soundbar.

http://referencehometheater.com/ Chris Heinonen

With Sonos (I do the Whole Home Audio piece), the only input is Optical. This means you are limited to Dolby Digital audio, while separate speaker systems with a receiver can do Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Basically the difference between mp3 and CD audio. Sonos can do CD quality audio in stereo (and now supports Tidal, which does true CD quality streaming) but it can’t do the lossless audio formats that were used to test these systems. Because of this, Sonos would almost certainly not win. It’s very good and very convenient, but wired speakers still have certain advantages.

Guesty McGuesterson

Ah, thanks for the answer. I wasn’t aware of some of those distinctions in digital audio formats

Don Nelson

Great article! One question: Which subwoofer did you test with the Aperion system. Sometimes you refer to the 8D (standard with the system you linked to) and other times you refer to the 10D. One example:

“Whereas the Aperion Bravus II 10D subwoofer won us over with its
impactful mid-bass frequencies, as well as the upper-bass—where sounds
from the sub are handed off to the main speakers (and vice versa)—the
NHT B-10d impressed us with its ability to dig deeper: to deliver
ultra-low bass sounds that are felt more than heard.”

Another:

“You could, for example, add a second Bravus II 10D Powered Subwoofer to the system to even out the bass performance in your room. Or if the Bravus II 10D’s lack of ultra-ultra-deep bass is a concern, […]”

In other words, I wonder if the “step up” would be to move to the 10D over the standard 8D, rather than all the way to the 12D as you suggest.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Ack! My apologies for that. It was the 8D. Given the similarity the designation of the NHT sub, my wires just got crossed here. I’ll get that fixed up ASAP.

Thanks for the catch!

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Oh, and to answer your final question, I would absolutely go with the 12D, due to the deeper bass extension. The 3dB-down point on the 12D is 23Hz. For the 10D it’s 27Hz.

The 10D would be an undeniable step up from the 8D in terms of extension, but to get the most out of your movie soundtracks, the 10D would be the better buy, in my opinion.

Don Nelson

Thanks for the reply! And also for your research. This was a great read.

These designations can get confusing… so I assume your final sentence should read, “…the *12D* would be the better buy, in my opinion.”

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Goodness gracious, I wish they would start calling these subwoofers things like “Fred” and “Delores.”

Yep! The 12D would be the way to go.

(Proofreads this comment four times before posting.)

metabrewing

Hsu Research, though rarely reviewed due to the fact that they don’t play the manufacturer>distributor>retailer>consumer business model, are the best sounding system I’ve heard in the ~$1500 price range. Their subwoofers get top praise by audiophile testers, but their speakers are less often tested (and in my opinion, to put it in technical jargon, “awesome”).

huja

Hsu HB-1 MK2 bookshelves are horn-loaded, and as the article mentions, they excluded these love/hate candidates.

Skyler

How do these (particularly the Pioneer and the Paradigm) stack up to the Energy Take Classic?

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

I’ll answer that question directly when I get the Energy Take Classic system in for the update of the budget surround sound system article!

Skyler

Looking forward to it!

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

It’s next up on my plate. Sit tight!

Tyler Humphreys

If you want Aperion speakers with some more style, you could also look at their Verus line for about $600 more for the system (full disclosure: I designed the Verus line).

Jim

Any recommendations for 7.1 speaker system?

http://referencehometheater.com/ Chris Heinonen

Just get two more of the bookshelves in the 5.1 pick. 7.1 rear surrounds should be the same as the 5.1 surrounds.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

True dat. Actually, when you buy from Aperion, you have to make the choice between the 5.1 and 7.1 systems before you add the system to the cart.

YaanG

Don’t waste any money expanding from 5.1 to 7.1. Human hearing is not sensitive to subtle directional differences to the rear.
Traditional surround installations in commercial theaters use 5.1. Improved versions add speakers in the front, not the rear. For example, SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) uses five front channels but still only two surround channels. As long as you are getting some sound from the rear, you will feel immersed in the soundfield.

huja

There seems to be a vocal internet fan base for Chane Arx speakers. Not much from professional reviewers save one glowing review from CNET’s Steve Guttenberg about the A1rx-c bookshelves. Would love for you to include those next time around. Four A1rx-c bookshelves and the dedicated A2rx-c center would run $830. Add in a Chane (note, not part of the Arx line) sub for $450 and you are at $1280 before tax S&H. Or put that money toward a SVS or HSU sub and you’d still be in the sub $2K price range for this review.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Adding them to my spreadsheet right this very now. Thanks for the recommendation!

kilowati

I had great success combining the Pioneer floorstanding 5.0 system ($478 on Amazon) with an SVS PB-1000 sub ($450-$500). The sound is just excellent and solves the Pioneer system’s main weakness.

theodoredonaldkerabatsos

I’m sure your system represents a tremendous value. Speaking of upgrading the Pioneer system: to many, this may not be worth the extra expense, but Dennis Murphy of Philharmonic Audio “makes” the Affordable Accuracy series, which takes these Pioneer speakers and upgrades the crossovers and tweeters for an even more linear response.

Agreed. I’d appreciate a good blind study comparing them to other speakers in this class. In my experience, there is a lot of industry resistance in reviewing HSU Research speakers due to their buy direct business model and zero dollars devoted towards marketing in industry magazines, websites or referral links.

http://thewirecutter.com/ tony kaye

We won’t discriminate against any company – referral links or not. If they’re the best, that’s that. Our expert is aware of this comment. Up to him to make a call.

metabrewing

Thanks for that clarification, Tony. My comment wasn’t directed at The Wirecutter, specifically, but it was good to hear. It was more general in that it makes sense why publishers would see that it would be a poor business decision to review products that they can’t make any money off of, especially given that this would be in the face of their business customers that spend lots of money each year advertising with them. Thanks again for this great review.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

I want to second this. The business model had absolutely no bearing on which speakers were brought in for testing. If that were the case, Aperion probably wouldn’t have made the cut. The decision not to bring in the HSU speakers was touched upon in the article, but it essentially boils down to the fact that a significant number of listeners simply hate the sound of horn-loaded drivers (in this price range, at any rate). But hey, it’s seriously starting to sound like there’s a good reason to overlook that and bring them in for blind testing!

The budget pick is next up on my to-do list. I’m heavy into the research now. Just trying to decide what needs to be brought in for blind testing.

At this point, I don’t necessarily think it invalidates the budget pick, because our price range for that article is going to be <$500. The bookshelf version of the Pioneer system (SP-PK22BS) is already on my "must-hear" list for the budget roundup, though.

Aaron McFarland

This site can be very damaging to the…wallet. Great review on these speakers. Always look forward to seeing new great picks from this site.

huja

So would bringing in a different branded Sub be a bad idea? It seems one of the things that set this set apart is how well the Aperion sub blended with the 5 speakers.

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Personally speaking? Just my opinion here? I don’t think bringing in a different brand of sub would be a bad idea at all, so long as said sub was up to snuff. I love HSU’s subs. i love SVS’s subs. I’m of the opinion that a sub from either of those companies would make a great match for the Aperion system.

But I need to be abundantly clear about something: that opinion is based on past experience with those subs and how well they worked with other speaker systems. I didn’t have subs from either brand on-hand, and didn’t do blind testing of the Aperion system with any sub other than its own.

huja

I absolutely understand why you didn’t muddy the waters on a review like this with mixing and matching other subs and I appreciate you sharing your opinions on the matter. I’ll be breaking out the credit card for a new HT system soon and the Aperion package is high on the list, mostly because of the center speaker praise. I’m also considering the Chane Arx-c setup with front towers, primarily because those speakers won the Home Theater Shack $1,000 tower speaker shootout. Chane Arx offers a center speaker but the glowing words you had for the Aperion center is making me think long and hard about that setup. Nothing ruins a HT experience more than garbled dialog.

But as has been mentioned already, it’s like a choice between very, very good and a little better. It’s a good time to be buying low/mid budget speakers.

Krishna

Any thoughts on how the Onkyo TX-NR636 or Anthem MRX-310 would hold up with these speakers? Or would you recommend a step up?

They Onkyo didn’t have a bit of trouble driving the Aperion speakers sufficiently in my 13×15′ testing room. Testing it out with some action movie scenes (sorry, I didn’t write down in my notes which ones), I was measuring peaks of about 97dB from my normal seating position near the back of the room with no audible distortion.

I didn’t have an MRX-310 on hand, though. Sorry. The bulk of my testing was done with the MRX-710.

Jake

Great review! I’ll be in the market for a system like these soon.

I had most recently had my eyes on a system by Ascend Acoustics, which, like HSU, circumvents the traditional sales channel and sells direct online. Specifically, a CMT-340 front and center with CBM-170s in the corners. These total less than $900, leaving plenty for a nice sub or two. Any chance of bringing in a system from Ascend for the next round of comparisons?

http://dust-in-a-sunbeam.blogspot.com/ Dennis Burger

Absolutely! I’ll adding them to my spreadsheet right now.

x37llnoise

Hey folks, hardly any of the tested speakers are available in europe. For all intents and purposes, we live on a different planet audio equipment wise. Same often goes for headphones BTW.